i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember, you can't take it with you. >> announcer: the heroes of the space race capture the imagination of a young boy. >> we choose to go to the moon. >> the world was fascinated. the astronauts were superstars. >> these are the nation's mercury astronauts. [ applause ] >> announcer: it inspires him to collect all kinds of nasa artifacts. >> that's one small step for man... >> it's one of america's greatest achievements, and i think it's something which will continue to inspire. >> announcer: but when he dies too young... >> i thought, "this can't be happening." >> announcer: ...he leaves his widow an inheritance that's out of this world. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today, i'm driving through southern california, where so much of the groundbreaking work for nasa's moon missions was done. i'm going to los angeles to meet a woman who embraced the lifelong passion of her soul mate -- a love for all things outer space. >> my name is shelly cigel. and when my husband passed away, he left me with an incredible collection and a special gift from beyond the grave. well, this is just a few little things that i took out. >> these nasa artifacts belonged to shelly's husband, rick cigel, samples of a lifelong collection that includes everything from engine parts to autographs. >> and this is actually the flag that they had signed, and that was from apollo 12. >> are these control panels? look at this! can i touch this? >> absolutely. please. >> okay. here we go.

can you imagine? regulator bleed valve open. check. m.o.m. open. check. >> looks like it says "mom" to me. >> mom. this is the button that tells mom we're about to lift off. but i heard you have a monkey chair. >> we do. >> i have to see this. because before humans went into space, primates were launched into orbit so scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel. i hear they paid them in bananas. it looks small enough. you really think a monkey rode in here? >> absolutely. batteries and power switches. >> look -- the battery from sears. that's funny. was rick proud of owning it? >> he loved telling everybody he had a monkey mobile. >> rick cigel is born in 1956 in stevens point, wisconsin. five years later, in 1961, a russian cosmonaut named yuri gargarin becomes the first human in space. president kennedy ups the ante

and challenges america to be the first to put a man on the moon. >> this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> alan b. shepard. >> i'm john glenn. >> walter m. schirra. >> to launch the space program, seven men are judged by nasa to have the right stuff and are enlisted into a program named project mercury. >> all systems are go. >> their goal -- to complete a series of manned flights around the earth and pave the way for the moon missions to come. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> human space flight is special, because you're sending people with human eyes and human emotions to truly alien places. >> keith haviland is a space

historian as well as an executive producer of a new film telling the story of astronaut gene cernan and the last voyage to the moon in 1972. >> oh, my golly! >> there's no substitute for human experience, human insight, and human ingenuity in exploration. >> and the awe and wonder felt that by that boy growing up in wisconsin back in the 1960s will last a lifetime. by 1990, rick is a successful l.a. lawyer with the money to start building an impressive collection of space artifacts. >> at the time, nasa was getting rid of all this stuff. they had warehouses of these things, and they were just throwing things away. >> rick tracks down big things and small, from a bottle of cocoa powder carried by astronauts on apollo 10 and a half-dollar flown on the 1965 gemini mission to a pair of soviet space-suit gloves and a

life-size space capsule replica he buys from a former nasa engineer. this is a space capsule. it's being taken off of a tow truck, loaded into his warehouse. >> he has the biggest grin on his face, and -- >> like a kid in a candy store. >> exactly. >> shelly is rick's next major find. actually, the 39-year-old milwaukee native found him on the jewish dating website jdate. what was it about rick that caught your attention? >> well, i had certain parameters i wasn't gonna go with. an attorney was one of the guys i would not date. but as i was looking through, i saw he was from wisconsin. and i sent him an e-mail that said, "you can't be that big of a jerk if you're from wisconsin." >> in 2007, rick and shelly move in together. did you want to marry him right away? >> i actually told rick i would never, never, never get married again. i was married once before. but as the years went by, we

were talking about it. >> then, at the age of only 56, rick cigel's health suddenly starts to fail. he suffers a stroke in 2012. the following year, there's more bad medical news. >> we were told he had stage 4 colorectal cancer. >> did your life change in that instant? >> yeah. yeah, it did. i was never so scared of losing somebody in my life. >> his days numbered, rick knows he must prepare shelly to deal with what will become her strange inheritance. he doesn't want her to keep it all but to sell it, hopefully to space nuts like him. that's when shelly comes to realize how vast and valuable rick's collection is. i heard it was enough to fill a warehouse. >> yes. >> there's a survival radio from mercury 9, a checklist from apollo 17, and this apollo hand controller for adjusting

altitude. then shelly clocks in this old camera, a hasselblad 500c. >> when i found it, i said to him, "oh, i used to take pictures with a camera like this in high school." and he laughed at me. said, "oh, no. you definitely didn't take a picture with something like this." >> that and a lot more is next. >> announcer: but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in a radio transmission from apollo 8, the astronauts reported seeing an object flying near them. what did they say it was? the answer in a moment. a must in your medicine cabinet!

less sick days! cold coming on? zicam® is clinically proven to shorten colds! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam zinc that cold!

♪ >> announcer: so, what did the apollo 8 astronauts say was flying near them? take a listen to command module pilot jim lovell. >> the stars align all too briefly for soul mates rick cigel and shelly lokietz. at the age of 57, rick learns he has stage 4 cancer and may only have months to get his affairs in order. in his life before shelly, rick amassed a huge collection of space memorabilia, now destined to become shelly's strange

inheritance. it includes hundreds of items you'd expect to find in a nasa warehouse or a museum, like, for instance, the udvar-hazy center in virginia, part of the smithsonian's air and space museum. i asked curator jennifer levasseur how all those artifacts could end up in the garage of a guy like rick cigel. and nasa just let astronauts take home stuff from their missions? >> that tended to happen quite a bit more up and through the end of the apollo period. astronauts often took home memorabilia. afterwards, shuttle astronauts had to give everything back. >> for example, those cameras from the mercury missions. >> the first astronaut to take one to space was wally schirra on his mercury mission. he was an amateur photographer, and they got some more in order to train with them and then, of course, take them to space. >> how important was photography in space? >> it's really fundamental to everything that we understand as people who can't go their

ourselves. it's a tremendous value to scientists who started to study weather from space. so, this is kind of the early phases of learning about the earth. >> now they're sought after by collectors, some selling for six figures. so, looking to provide shelly a cash cushion and a crash course in selling space memorabilia, rick cigel asks his friend, a new hampshire auction executive, bobby livingston to unload his rare hasselblad. >> that's the first time he told me that he -- he was dying, that he had cancer. i'll never forget it. >> livingston knows rick's anxious to complete a sale quickly but must verify the camera is an original that flew into space. turns out it isn't that simple. rick bought it from mercury astronaut gordon cooper in 1995 for $19,000. and he gives the auction house two letters of authenticity to prove it, along with actual

photos that the astronaut said were taken from space with that camera. "i took the photographs with a hasselblad camera. the serial number on the camera body is tv 45279." but when the auction house submits the camera for expert analysis, the results surprise everyone. did it end up being gordon cooper's camera? >> it did not. >> uh-oh. that's next. >> announcer: here's another quiz question for you. how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? is it... the answer in a moment. broken windshield... take 1... hey guys, my windshield just got broken,

i feel like i need to blow off some steam. let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom, yeah! geico. great service without all the drama. sometimes, you want speedy but reliable. state-of-the-art but dependable. in other words, you want a hybrid. so do telcos. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps them roll out new innovations anywhere without losing speed. from telco to transportation, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. good work little buddy. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

it's time you make the rules.

so join the 2 million people who have switched to xfinity mobile. you can choose from the latest phones or bring your own device and choose the amount of data that's right for you to save even more. and you'll get nationwide 5g at no extra cost. all on the most reliable network. so choose a data option that's right for you. get nationwide 5g included and save up to $300 a year on the network rated #1 in customer satisfaction. it's your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile. ♪

>> announcer: so, how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? only one -- alan shepard during the apollo 14 mission. >> it's 2014 in los angeles. shelly lokietz and her longtime boyfriend, rick cigel, are stunned when rick is diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. >> rick said he felt like charlie brown with lucy and the football. and i said, "you're not gonna die. we're gonna -- we're gonna get this -- you're gonna get better." >> but rick seems to know the end is near, and he's determined to give shelly a head start on dealing with the strange and valuable inheritance he'll leave her -- a huge collection of space memorabilia. it took him decades to amass, and he may only have months to live. >> he really saw his mortality. he wanted these items to go to people that would appreciate them like he did.

>> of the hundreds of items, rick zeroes in on this hasselblad camera for a quick and easy sale. he bought it from astronaut gordon cooper, who stated, in writing, that he used it snap some of the earliest pictures from outer space in 1963. but it now appears that couldn't be true. the auction house gets a confusing report from the authenticator. what was the news? >> it's not authentic. >> a fake? >> it's the proper period, but this camera was not gordon cooper's. >> how did you know that it wasn't gordon cooper's? it came with a letter saying it was. >> this scratch right here -- that's the smoking gun. >> houston, we have a problem. it takes precious days to solve the mystery. the key clue comes when the auction house compares rick's camera with the one wally schirra took into space the year before cooper's flight.

>> our forensic expert, with photographic evidence, was able to find scuff marks that matched exactly to schirra's camera. this is schirra's camera, taken in 1962, and it matches exactly to the one that rick bought. >> so, rick thought he was buying gordon cooper's space camera, but he was really buying wally schirra's. but how could that be? >> they took home each other's things, but both astronauts sold their cameras believing that this was schirra's and this was cooper's. >> far from being a problem, it turns out to be a good thing. schirra was the first guy to take it up in space. this is the most famous hasselblad there is. >> so, wait a minute. that sounds like it's worth more. >> it is worth a lot more, not only financially but historically. i mean, this is the most important hasselblad ever made. >> when the auction is announced online, it's no surprise the camera catches the eye of

filmmaker and space historian keith haviland. >> it's the first such device that captured images of the quality necessary to give a sense of the world as it is -- the blue, fragile planet on which we live. >> then comes the live auction in boston on november 13th, 2014. >> our first item is the first hasselblad camera in space. >> haviland makes the winning bid, a whopping $275k. >> sold! >> when it arrived, i mean, that was a magic moment, holding it in my hands for the first time. >> there will be one more strange twist involving that hasselblad. but not before, back in los angeles, rick's health worsens. he has time to get just one last thing done. >> he said, "would you still want to get married, knowing that you could be a widow so

soon?" >> mm. >> i said, "i would rather be your wife for one day than to be your, quote, girlfriend of eight years." >> you ever regret the decision to marry with him being so ill? >> no, because i have his name. and that was the other thing i said to him. "i want your name." >> the doctors remove his breathing tube for a few moments, and a justice of the peace marries the couple. >> right before he died, he opened his eyes one last time. he looked at me, and he squeezed my hand. and that was it. his heart just stopped. >> on the same day she is a bride, shelly is a widow. and soon, she will have to deal with her strange inheritance. >> there's no way i could go through everything. i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> but there's one thing rick did not forget. you get a call that he has

another little something for you. >> yes. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. at fidelity, you'll work with an advisor to help you build a flexible wealth plan. you'll have access to tax-smart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. personalized advice. unmatched value. at fidelity, you can have both. unmatched value. aso the national eye instituteon did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula only found in preservision. if it were my vision, i'd ask my doctor about preservision.

it's the most studied eye vitamin brand. if it were my vision, i'd look into preservision. only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. i have amd. it is my vision so my plan includes preservision.

>> announcer: and now, the conclusion of "strange inheritance." >> in 2015, shelly cigel inherits the daunting task of dealing with her late husband, rick's, enormous space collection -- thousands of relics accumulated over a lifetime. >> i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> having just watched a space camera rick bought for $19,000 bring in $275k, she reaches out to rick's friend bobby livingston for help. >> there's no way i could go through everything. we had so many different things, even from the astronauts themselves. >> she starts small and puts 20

items on the auction block. shelly follows the action from what is now her home in brentwood, california. >> what was that like for you? >> that was the first time i watched an auction by myself, without rick. >> among the artifacts, a buzz aldrin-signed life magazine cover goes for $530. a piece of mercury 4 cable fetches $1,300. an apollo light meter -- $1,700. michael collins' slide rule -- $3,000. gene cernan's apollo 17 checklist -- $4,800. gordon cooper's command wings -- $6,000. a soviet cosmonaut's soyuz 17 film cannister -- $13,000. and prices keep going up. take cooper's survival radio. >> in case he needed to communicate with nasa, should he be lost somewhere, if he crashed out in the desert.

what do you think this sold for? >> $10,000? >> very close. a little under $15,000. >> and this apollo altitude controller fetches $74,000. >> i kept saying to rick, "we did it. we did it." >> how much did you get? >> um... >> a lot. >> a lot. yeah. >> shelly's final tally for the auction -- over $100k. but a big part of shelly's strange inheritance remains, like that monkey chair, nasa instrument panel, autographed photos, and full-size replica space capsule, plus hundreds more artifacts. shelly hopes to find a buyer for them someday. and who knows what it all might be worth? do you feel that you fulfilled rick's wish in having the items you sold recently get into the hands of other people who will

appreciate them as much? >> oh, absolutely. you realize that these are people who know what they're buying. these are once-in-a-lifetime items. these things don't come up again. >> and now, that final twist we promised was coming. you get a call that he has another little something for you. >> yes. >> it was just a few days after her husband's funeral. an e-mail appears in shelly's in-box. it's from an auction house telling her that, before he died, rick had bid on a rare wedding ring. >> an e-mail popped up that said, "congratulations. you won the ring by proxy bid." when rick was in the hospital, he put a secret bid in. where everybody should be thinking about him, he was always thinking about me. >> someone still had to pay for it, but it seems rick thought of that, too. remember that space camera rick

was so anxious to sell? bobby livingston wires some of that cash, and just like that, a package arrives. >> i opened it up, and it was more beautiful than i imagined. >> rick had good taste. >> yeah, he did. >> now, that's a "strange inheritance" story. one look at shelly and you can tell she's over the moon. roger that, mission control. it is kind of amazing that more than half of americans living today weren't even born when man last walked on the moon. will we ever go back? well, at least one space-tourism company is taking reservations for a to-be-determined blast-off date. shelly wishes rick would have lived to see such a day. he would have done anything to get one of those boarding passes and no doubt return with some incredible photos and souvenirs for his collection. i'm jamie colby for

"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> he was at the center of a scandal -- the national pastime, gambling, and gangsters. >> arnold rothstein gave them a little bit of money to, supposedly, throw the series. >> "shoeless" joe was arguably the best baseball player of all time. >> he's banned from the game... >> one weeping fan of his cried out, "say it isn't so!" >> ...and the fascination with his tale endures. >> shoeless joe's really part of pop culture. >> so why is his autograph one of the rarest in sports? >> he was virtually illiterate. >> he had a very hard time even writing an individual letter. >> he did. >> as far as we know it, there is only one known. >> one? >> just one. >> and it's this woman's strange inheritance. >> it started to dawn on me that this is a lot of money we're

talking about. >> this is a biggie -- 1911 "shoeless" joe jackson signed photograph. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> hi. i'm jamie colby, and i'm heading along the shores of lake erie in cleveland, ohio. today i'm meeting a woman who inherited a rare item that recalls the most notorious episode in baseball history -- an episode that's inspired books and movies and retains an air of mystery to this day. >> my name is sharon bowen. after my husband, bill, passed away, i started to receive lots of phone calls about a scrapbook that he had kept in a trunk in our bedroom. i knew very little about "shoeless" joe jackson, but now i do. >> bill and sharon bowen raise two children in a cleveland suburb. how long were you married? >> we were married 39 years. >> bill, a professional

fundraiser, works for local universities and the salvation army. he's a native clevelander and a baseball nut. >> this is bill, probably around 5 or 6. >> bill started collecting at a very early age. >> and never stops. card collecting becomes a family affair. >> did you do any collecting with him? >> that was my thing with him and with his father -- every saturday, going to baseball-card shows, just sitting around the kitchen table and looking at all the cards. >> through work, bill becomes friends with a retired professor who shares his passion for collecting. >> and one day, the -- the gentleman's wife said to him, "i have a book i bet you would love to see." >> boy, does he! this simple paper scrapbook holds a treasure trove of photographs from the 1911 spring training camp of the cleveland naps, now called the indians. >> she inherited this book from her father, and her father received it as a gift from his

friend frank smith. >> frank smith was a photographer for the cleveland plain dealer. that spring, he takes action shots of established stars like nap lajoie, christy mathewson, and a cleveland rookie named joseph jefferson jackson. >> hi, joe. >> good to see you. >> so great to see you. to learn more about that rookie, i pay a visit to baseball memorabilia maven joe orlando. when the names of greats come up, is shoeless joe still in that category? >> babe ruth, who most people consider to be the greatest player who ever lived, patterned his own swing after joe jackson's. >> safe! >> if that doesn't tell you what type of a hitter joe jackson was, i don't know what -- what will. >> joe jackson is born in pickens county, south carolina, in 1887. what kind of family did he come from? >> well, he came from humble beginnings. he worked at a textile mill as a

teenager, as a mill hand, and he was virtually illiterate for the remainder of his life. >> but on the diamond, he's a true phenom. at the age of 13, he stars on the cotton mill's team and picks up a lifelong nickname. >> legend has it that while he was a teenager playing in a mill game, his cleats were bothering him so much that he took his cleats off and played the rest of the game without shoes, and one of the fans started to heckle him and call him a shoeless son of a gun. >> "shoeless" joe's career takes off like a blue-streak line drive. in 1908, he bats .346 for a minor league team in greenville. in 1911, he's ready to move up. >> it was his first full season in the majors with the cleveland naps. >> and photog frank smith documents his arrival in "the bigs." [ cheers and applause ] >> he batted .408, which still stands as a record for a rookie.

[ bat cracking ] >> safe! >> he may be a whiz on the field, but traveling with his teammates, joe can't even read a menu. >> if they were in a restaurant, he'd listen to what everyone else ordered and simply base his order off of that. >> he needs help just writing his own name, so he rarely signs anything but legal documents. of course, you don't need to read or write to hit a fastball. in 1915, joe moves up another notch when he's traded to the chicago white sox. >> chicago was a very good team, and he helped them win a world series in the 1917 season. >> they may have been good, but they were not happy. >> charles comiskey, who was the owner of the white sox at the time, was known as being extremely frugal. >> in 1919, the sox again capture the american league pennant and are favored to beat the cincinnati reds in the world series. but many players feel comiskey is cheating them of their bonuses.

the friction creates an opportunity for a new york gangster named arnold rothstein, who runs a sports-betting racket. >> arnold rothstein got to some of the players of the chicago white sox and gave them a little bit of money under the table to supposedly throw the series. >> when the sox lose the series 5 games to 3, rothstein makes a bundle. the "black sox" scandal erupts. a grand jury indicts shoeless joe and seven other players for conspiracy. >> several of those teammates confessed that they were part of fixing the series and implicated joe jackson. >> testimony of pitcher edward cicotte is said to have been most incriminating evidence. >> prompted by comiskey's lawyer, jackson admits taking $5,000 from teammate lefty williams, but he denies throwing the series. outside the courtroom, a young sox fan supposedly confronts his hero. "say it ain't so, joe!" he says.

but was it so? why would a player like shoeless joe throw a game, a world series game? >> well, the reality is that you and i will never know, with 100% certainty, the truth. joe jackson was virtually illiterate, so when he was confessing, did he comprehend what he was doing? >> based on the stats, it didn't look like joe jackson had anything to do with the plot. he batted .375, hit a home run, and had 6 rbis. >> although a jury acquits all eight "black sox" players, baseball commissioner judge kenesaw mountain landis bans them from the game. shoeless joe takes his trophies home and never again sets foot on a big league diamond. he lives in relative obscurity in south carolina until his death in 1951. since then, few baseball stories have captured the imagination more than shoeless joe's.

being here at the baseball field, it's the perfect place to ask you about him as a legend. >> we have movies such as "field of dreams," "eight men out," that continue to bring shoeless joe in front of new fans, new moviegoers. >> and that legend is what drives cleveland baseball collector bill bowen to covet the book of frank smith photos, which his friend showed him in 2006. take me back to the moment he first told you he wanted to buy the scrapbook. >> he came home and said, "you know, i'm gonna buy this book." >> the price -- $15,000. the missus is not amused. >> i said, "absolutely not. who would spend that kind of money for a paper scrapbook filled with old pictures?" >> your husband the baseball nut, that's who! and that's next. >> but first, our... two of these actors played

"shoeless" joe jackson in hollywood movies. which one didn't? the answer in a moment.

♪ piano playing ♪ "what the world needs now" ♪ ♪ is love, sweet love ♪ it's the only thing that there's just too little of ♪ ♪ what the world needs now is love, sweet love, ♪

♪ no not just for some but for everyone.♪ >> so, which actor didn't play shoeless joe? the answer is... liotta played him in "field of dreams," sweeney in "eight men out," but redford's character in "the natural" was only based on shoeless joe.

>> in early 2010, baseball fanatic bill bowen tries to convince his wife to let him buy this 100-year-old scrapbook of vintage baseball players. in it is an autographed picture of the legendary "shoeless" joe jackson. the asking price -- $15,000. >> and that's when i said, "no, absolutely not." >> bill buys it anyway, selling some of his other memorabilia to raise the cash. where did you keep it? >> it was just sitting in a trunk in our bedroom, handy, so he could pull it out and look at it and show it to people when they came. >> and sharon decides to stop giving her husband a hard time about it. really? you were that easy about it? >> i was easy, because life's too short, and -- and it proved to be true. >> in 2014, bill has a heart attack... and dies at the age of 67.

shortly after his death, baseball collectors begin calling his widow. >> we started to get some phone calls from people. did we still have the book? would we consider selling it? >> a family friend suggests they talk to heritage auctions in dallas. >> so my daughter took some pictures of the book... [ camera shutter clicking ] ...and e-mailed it to heritage, and they e-mailed her back in four minutes. >> four -- within four minutes, you heard from an auction house? >> mm-hmm. >> chris ivy specializes in baseball memorabilia. >> when something like this comes in, it's incredibly special. >> three days later, a heritage representative flies up from dallas. >> he starts flipping through it and says, "you didn't tell me that this guy was in here. you didn't tell me you had this autograph." >> but the real money shot is that autographed picture of shoeless joe. the bowen family sends the book to the auction house.

chris ivy believes the autographed joe jackson picture is one of a kind. but before it goes on the auction block, he has to make sure it's genuine. >> we don't sell any autographs without third-party authentication. so, obviously, that's a nerve-wracking prospect. >> and the authenticators have their doubts. how likely was it that it was legitimately signed by joe jackson? >> in my head, i'm thinking, "i'm sure you also have a bigfoot/loch ness monster dual-signed baseball coming behind that, as well." >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer in a moment. research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia.

so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. wow! what'd you get, ryan? it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! what does it do bud? it customizes our home insurance so we only pay for what we need! and what did you get, mike? i got a bike. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ save without even leaving your house.

just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you'll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. nationwide 5g is now included. switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile.

>> ...which curved in to right-handers. it helped mathewson rack up a record 373 career wins. >> there's nothing like a day at the park -- our own field of dreams. >> that's right. >> to determine whether sharon bowen's strange inheritance -- this autographed picture of "shoeless" joe jackson -- is real, the auction house calls joe orlando, president of professional sports authenticator, in orange county, california. he's also a baseball nut. >> legend has it that shoeless joe could throw a ball 400 feet, so what you're looking at is probably a ball that would actually sail far over that scoreboard beyond the center-field fence. >> that's awesome. joe's job is to give buyers and auction houses an informed opinion on the legitimacy of sports memorabilia. >> it's our job to be skeptical

about everything. >> how elaborate is the process to authenticate something of this magnitude? >> well, that's where we're gonna head over to our offices and really give you an in-depth look at the process itself. >> it falls to psa's steve grad to determine whether the joe jackson signed photo is legit. steve, thank you so much for letting me come in. i am the most excited about this authentication part. for yet another baseball nut, it's the chance of a lifetime. >> there isn't a joe jackson photograph that i know of that's actually signed, and they're telling me it's got great provenance, great story. but i want to see that autograph first. >> steve has reason to be skeptical, and not just because jackson couldn't read or write. collecting autographs from ballplayers didn't become a fad until well after shoeless joe's career. signed photos from his era are very rare. confirming that the photo was actually printed in 1911 is psa's first challenge. what about the photograph

itself? did you have any concern about the paper? >> we have a photo expert, henry yee, and henry's really good with paper and photographs. he confirmed that, "well, this was used for a short period of time, but right during that period." he knew immediately. >> okay, the picture is legit, but how about that signature? >> so, this is joe jackson's last contract. this is 1920. >> remember, nobody has seen another autographed shoeless joe picture. but steve can compare the writing to various legal documents that the illiterate jackson did sign. >> through the years i've been able see a handful of joe jackson signatures we've deemed authentic, and i'm able to look at certain tendencies joe jackson has. so, that autograph has to talk to me. if you want to go ahead and put it in... >> we put a copy of the signed photo into this contraption, called a video spectral comparator. >> you'll see things you can't see with the naked eye... >> let's see. >> ...you could see with this. and here we go. i'm gonna drop the magnification to 8. >> it's very "csi." >> and we start to look at the formations here of the letters.

you can see where he's really -- he labored. >> he had a very hard time even writing an individual letter. >> he did. >> how do you distinguish the signature that we look at and the real deal? >> so, we take the photo back, and we take a look at the signature itself, okay? what's fascinating to me -- we're talking 1911, 1920. 9 years later. look how he comes up here to the "e," okay? and we're starting to see the same thing here again. >> a straight line from the "o" to the "e" in "joe." >> 1911 to 1920 -- you take a look, it's literally the same thing. >> with what percentage are you certain you have an authentic joe jackson signed photograph? >> 100%. i had, like, this eureka moment. and i was like, "bam! there it is! that's joe jackson." >> steve certifies the autographed shoeless joe picture and the entire 60-photo collection is real. >> it's one of the coolest

things i've ever handled in my entire life. >> even better news for the bowen family -- he grades the signature a 9 out of 10 in quality. he also rates the other signatures at either 9 or 10. after more than 100 years, the photos frank smith took at the cleveland naps spring training are about to make their public debut. >> it's also very exciting to reach out to the bowens and -- and let them know that we're gonna be able to sell it on their behalf. >> this is a biggie -- 1911 "shoeless" joe jackson signed photograph... >> yeah, live auction is always a lot of fun. >> beautiful. how 'bout it? >> $30,000. >> $30,000 now. >> it was very exciting. >> have you ever seen a photo like this? >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail or go to our website... we love the new apartment. the natural light is amazing. hardwood floors. there is a bit of a clogging problem.

(clog dancing) at least geico makes it easy to bundle our renters and car insurance. yeah, helping us save us even more... for bundling made easy, go to geico.com . ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> manhattan.

february 21, 2015. sharon bowen's family gathers for the auction of her strange inheritance... a 1911 scrapbook of signed photos of baseball greats. the crown jewel of the collection is the only known autographed photo of "shoeless" joe jackson, but the bowens soon learn the rest of the collection is plenty valuable, too. >> lot 53, the 1911 christy mathewson signed photo. have you ever seen a photo like this from mathewson? >> $30,000. >> $30,000. now $36,000. >> the scrapbook is broken into four lots for auction. >> $36,000. now to go to $38,000. >> i said to my children, "dad would have loved this." >> $60,000! >> and will said to me, "except, mom, dad would never have done it because he would have kept that book as long as he was alive." >> now it's a level playing field. >> my dad and i had been to so many sort of auctions like that, but never one of this magnitude. >> there are a few bidders in the room, but most are online and anonymous.

>> the christy mathewson photo, which had some very spirited bidding... >> $2,500 more to you, sir. they're gonna help you pay for it, i guess. >> ...and went well beyond its initial estimate. >> $77,500 once, twice. done! it's yours, $77,500. give him a hand. [ applause ] moving along, this is a biggie. >> next on the auction block, that signed photo of "shoeless" joe jackson, the only one known to exist. >> it was fun and bittersweet, because it meant the story was over for us. this piece of bill was leaving. >> probably read some press about this. absolutely pristine condition. >> it was the pride and joy of bill bowen's lifelong collection. >> let's start the bidding at... >> $110,000. >> $110,000. give me $120,000. >> and at that point, it started to dawn on me that this is a lot of money we're talking about. >> $120,000. now to go to $130,000. >> and i think at some point, my left knee started to buckle, just a little. >> i was very excited for -- for

sharon bowen and her family, as well. it speaks to her husband, bill bowen, that he had a great eye. >> now we got to $150,000. i need a buck and a half. $150,000 for the shoeless joe. $150,000. anyone else? done! $150,000! >> when the auction house commission is added, the joe jackson picture brings in $179,000. in the end, one anonymous bidder buys the whole collection. >> i thought -- you know, it's silly. they're not siblings, but, still, it made me happy that they stayed together. >> the scrapbook that bill bowen bought for $15,000 garners just over $300,000. not a bad return on investment... and a nice chunk of cash for his widow. >> he knew on some level that this would be a legacy to us and it would be security for me in my retirement and enable us to do some things for our children that he would want us to do.

>> in a bygone era, an enterprising photographer shoots a picture of an up-and-coming ballplayer and gets him to autograph it. the player sees stardom, then scandal, obscurity, then immortality, as the photo passes to a daughter, a friend, a co-worker, and, finally, a wife, once skeptical, now profoundly grateful that her husband had the sense, at least this once, not to listen to her. bill's daughter, meredith, told me that she has her own "field of dreams" vision of her father up in the baseball section of heaven, playing catch with "shoeless" joe. joe looks at him and smiles and says, "ain't it crazy? my signature on that old picture just got your wife a whole big pot of money." and just maybe bill is getting "shoeless" joe to explain exactly what happened back in chicago in 1919.

i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ bat cracks, crowd cheers ] dagen: good morning, i'm dagen mcdowell. down to the wire in georgia, fox news projecting that democrat raphael warnock defeated incumbent kelly loeffler while the race with david perdue and jon ossoff is too close to call. claims of memory card in one county stopping entirely as president trump ready for massive rally and bigger fight in washington ahead of the electoral college certification today. the president sayin